Meal Planning Monday ~ Get Back on the Wagon

Have you fallen off the Meal Planning wagon? It happens even to the best of us sometimes. Laid back summer schedules, vacations, and holidays can sometimes derail our meal planning, and that’s okay. The trick is to get back on the wagon sooner rather than later. If you’ve never done any serious Meal Planning, now is the perfect time to start! With the school year starting up, most of us will be getting back to a more structured schedule this fall. Here are some tips for getting on (or back on) the Meal Planning wagon, and my own Meal Plan for this week.

Start small. I typically meal plan on a monthly basis. This can seem overwhelming, so let’s just start with planning this week, or the remainder of this month for now. (I like monthly meal planning because I only have to do it 12 times a year, instead of 52 times a year!) Make sure that you’ve at least got a week of meals planned before you head to the grocery store.

Base your meal plan on what you’ve already got on hand. If you’ve got an abundance of ground beef in the freezer, or canned tomatoes in the pantry, schedule a few meals to incorporate those ingredients.

Look at your schedule. If you have a parents’ meeting at school on Thursday night, don’t schedule a complicated meal that day. It may sound like a no-brainer, but save the labor-intensive recipes for days when you have the time to make them.

Plan around what’s on sale this week. I usually plan my main dishes for dinner, but not always my sides. I want to be flexible enough to work in the red potatoes, cauliflower, and asparagus that are on sale this week!